"Alright, let's get to work now!" Long Xin urged. "We've already wasted enough time! I'll stay here with them to collect, you two focus on killing the Skeleton Warlords!" Long Xin stayed behind partly to protect these seven Eastern Guards, as this was the Skeleton Cave and no one could guarantee nothing unexpected would happen. On the other hand, she also needed to supervise the Eastern Guards' work, since the value of the Skeleton Eyeballs was quite high; if the Guards pocketed them, all our efforts would be in vain.

"En!" Long Zhan, Long Qi, and I nodded slightly, immediately heading deeper into the Skeleton Cave.

Just like yesterday, upon encountering the group of Skeleton Warlords, I immediately unleashed my rapid attack blade technique, slaughtering the Warlords. Long Zhan and Long Qi were not idle either; they both displayed their own skills and started working. However, compared to my highly efficient method of assault and slaughter, their monster-killing efficiency was as slow as snails.

Long Qi and Long Zhan watched helplessly as Xing Chen moved about as if strolling in a garden, delivering a chop here and a slash there. With every strike, a Skeleton Warlord's life was harvested. The manner, the expression—it was indescribably relaxed, free, and natural. The two decided to imitate him, specifically targeting the throat of the Skeleton Warlords. However, only Long Qi managed to achieve a tiny bit of effect. Long Zhan, instead, suffered greatly after changing his attack style, as his axe lacked Xing Chen's speed and accuracy. Because he was too focused on attacking the Skeleton Warlords' necks, he missed many opportunities to kill them and was almost struck by a counterattack. After trying a few times, he had to reluctantly give up.

As for Long Qi's Soul Fire Talisman, while it could hit the throat of a Skeleton Warlord, only the very first cast was accurate. Since the Soul Fire Talisman’s power wasn't very strong, even hitting the throat didn't achieve an instant kill. Once struck, the Skeleton Warlord reacted quickly and charged at Long Qi. Once a Skeleton Warlord was moving at high speed, Long Qi's Soul Fire Talisman lost its accuracy, naturally failing to achieve rapid kills. Consequently, Long Qi wisely abandoned this extreme attack method.

The other two watched as Xing Chen, due to their presence causing a dispersal of monster density, was actually forced to expand his movement range to keep up with the killing. Invisibly, the addition of the other two actually reduced Xing Chen's monster-killing efficiency.

"How can this be!" Long Qi exclaimed in shock.

"I think we should move to another spot! Being squeezed in with him is only affecting him," Long Zhan said, swallowing his pride, voicing his honest thoughts.

"Is that so!" Long Qi looked at Xing Chen, still harvesting lives in the fray, lost in thought. "It seems no matter how many Skeleton Warlords come, they can't harm Xing Chen. Instead, they just limit his movement range. Why don't we just lure the Skeleton Warlords toward him? That way, Xing Chen won't waste time searching for monsters!"

"Ah!" Long Zhan was completely stunned by Long Qi's fanciful idea. "Isn't that harming him!"

"Do you think you can harm him!" Long Qi retorted irritably. "That guy is a total monster. No matter how many Skeleton Warlords show up, they come, they die!"

"En! Fine! Let's try it first!" Long Zhan hesitated.

The two separated and charged toward the dense mass of Skeleton Warlords in different directions. Since they were intentionally baiting the monsters, countless Skeleton Warlords chased after them like a tide.

"Mother, there are too many!" Long Zhan jumped back in fright and turned to run, but the Skeleton Warlords behind him kept up the pursuit relentlessly.

On the other side, Long Qi encountered the same situation.

The two ran back to Xing Chen almost simultaneously, and two massive swarms of Skeleton Warlords rushed in front of them.

"Mass Invisibility Spell!" At the crucial moment, Long Qi cast a Mass Invisibility Spell. Their figures virtually vanished into thin air, and the Skeleton Warlords, having lost their targets, immediately charged toward Xing Chen.

"Ah! So many!" The sudden surge of Skeleton Warlords did startle me, but this was actually good; it saved me the time of moving around to find targets. Realizing this, I immediately lifted my spirits and sped up my blade work.

I saw Long Qi and Long Zhan flash out beside me, and they even smiled proudly at me: "Xing Chen, keep it up! We'll go lure some more!"

Damn, it was their doing! I finally understood. These two managed to learn monster-luring on their own, essentially treating me like a killing machine. But this suited me just fine.

"Heh heh, lure away to your heart's content!" I felt invigorated, my spirit soaring, and my Hundred Battles Blade shone with an ever-shifting brilliance. Due to the sheer numbers, the Skeleton Warlords surrounded me, giving me a rare perfect angle for an 'eight kills in one strike.'

Swish! A bizarre arc flashed, and eight Skeleton Warlords fell simultaneously. But soon, other Warlords occupied their spots. Almost without pause, another arc flashed, and six closer Skeleton Warlords fell dead at once. In this manner, the area within three meters around me acted like a terrifying monster-swallowing ring; any Skeleton Warlord entering that range had its head instantly removed. In just ten seconds, not a single one of the densely packed Skeleton Warlords remained standing.

Hoo! I tightly gripped the Hundred Battles Blade, shouting with exhilaration. That continuous flurry of strikes was incredibly satisfying! Moreover, I vaguely sensed an uncontrollable thrill and urge, as if, at that moment, my entire being was controlled by a strange state—an extreme thirst for slaughter and harvesting.

"Monster!" Long Qi and Long Zhan's faces turned ashen. "Over a hundred of them, and he wiped them out in one go!"

"Go lure more!" Long Zhan and Long Qi moved simultaneously; this guy seemed determined to challenge Xing Chen.

Hoo! I slowly calmed the violent pounding in my chest. To be honest, I didn't even remember how many strikes I unleashed during those ten seconds, but the physical exhaustion was staggering. I took advantage of the lull while they lured monsters to quickly recover my stamina, moving ten meters further. After all, the previous spot was already piled high with the remains of Skeleton Warlords.

About a minute later, Long Qi and Long Zhan, each leading a vast army of skeletons, charged toward me.

En, I assumed my stance, ready for battle.

"Mass Invisibility Spell."

Boom!

After a blur of faint white light, the figures of the two vanished again into thin air, and the enraged skeleton army charged madly toward me.

The other two, Long Zhan and Long Qi, quickly separated and ran off again: "Xing Chen, keep it up! We'll bring even more later!"

"Damn it!" I didn't even have time to curse before I was swallowed by the crazed skeleton army!

Kill! A tragic battle of assault and slaughter unfolded once again, much the same as before. The dense skeleton army was quickly annihilated by me, and my battle line advanced another ten meters.

Barely catching my breath, Long Qi and Long Zhan's skeleton armies appeared again in front of me and to my front-left!

Damn! They're trying to exhaust me to death!

I could only summon my energy again and resume the slaughter.

Thus, Long Qi and Long Zhan lured monsters separately, while I pushed my killing speed to the absolute limit. Eventually, it became almost a conditioned reflex; it seemed my body was controlled by another soul, constantly swinging the blade, decapitating, constantly switching positions and dodging.

An hour later, the collection team led by Long Xin finally discovered Xing Chen fifty meters ahead around a corner, but they were stunned by the scene before them. The fifty-meter passage ahead was nearly choked with the remains of Skeleton Warlords, as if the entire corridor was paved with their bones. The battle unfolding fifty meters ahead horrified Long Xin and the Eastern Guards behind her. Countless Skeleton Warlords charged madly toward that small blue figure, but any that neared the three-meter radius around him would fall strangely, as if within those three square meters lay a terrifying, life-harvesting demon circle. Soon, the entire dense mass of Skeleton Warlords lay fallen. The only blue figure standing in the area stood quietly. For a moment, everyone had the illusion that the person standing there was not human, but a terrifying monster that only knew slaughter and reaping.

However, whether it was Long Xin or the Eastern Guards behind her, they all knew that guy was just a youth; the Guards had walked up the mountain with him that morning.

"Is he... still... human?" The leading Eastern Guard managed to utter the words with difficulty.

"So, all these Skeleton Warlords were killed by him alone," Guard Tong Dama murmured. "He looks kind of cute, but he strikes so ruthlessly!"

................................

"This fellow Xing Chen!" Long Xin gripped her magic staff tightly, gritting her teeth. "Even Fire Wall Technique isn't this abnormal! To have such a warrior!" At this moment, Long Xin was numb; she wouldn't find anything happening with Xing Chen strange anymore, but it made her even more desperate to improve her own strength.

After the morning's hard work, the passage was piled high with dense skeleton remains covering nearly two hundred meters that hadn't been picked up yet. The collected Skeleton Eyes had reached an astonishing fifty thousand, and yet, there were still so many Skeleton Warlord corpses left uncollected. No one expected that the divided monster-luring by Long Qi and Long Zhan, combined with my high-efficiency stationary killing, would yield such terrifying results. Even after clearly tallying the collection results, everyone still looked incredibly disbelieving.

"Monster!" Long Qi and Long Zhan were long since numb. The seven Eastern Guards stared at me with expressions of deep inquiry, as if something strange had grown on my face, causing me to instinctively touch my own face again and again.

"Alright, time to eat!" Long Xin packed up the collected Skeleton Eyeballs and hid them away, then took out a set of tables and stools from her Spatial Pouch. To be honest, in all the time I'd been in this world, this was the first time I saw someone use a Spatial Pouch. Although I knew that Spatial Pouches were very common in this world and not exclusive to Mages—anyone with money could buy one. It was hard to imagine a backpack the size of a satchel could hold five cubic meters of space. You could stuff anything inside except living things; it was incredibly convenient. But then again, the price was ridiculously high; one like Long Xin's cost one million gold coins. I really wondered where this girl got so much money! But thinking about how the three of them were nobles from the Long Family of Beichuan in the Qi Empire, having Spatial Pouches wasn't that surprising. I wished I could have one of these pouches someday. I thought smugly.

Long Qi and Long Zhan busied themselves setting up the tables and chairs, while Long Xin then brought out lunch.

"Wow! So fragrant! And it's still hot!" Long Zhan cheered. "Wow, these are the inn's top signature dishes!" Everyone was surprised by the lavish lunch Long Xin had brought—it was practically a full replication of yesterday's signature dishes, along with ten jars of Jade Carving Nectar.

"Boss!" Long Qi looked utterly aghast. "Are you running a fever?"

"Let me check!" Long Zhan, being even more dramatic, placed his rough hand directly on Long Xin's forehead.

"Get your pig trotters off me!" If she hadn't been holding a jar of Jade Carving Nectar in her left hand and a plate of Dragon's Wing in her right, Long Xin would have probably smacked Long Zhan over the head.

"Uh, Guild Leader," I was also drooling, my appetite whetted, but I was equally puzzled as to why Long Xin would bring such a sumptuous lunch. "Is today some kind of special festival?"

"Nothing!" Long Xin set down the tray and the Jade Carving Nectar; now, over a dozen dishes were perfectly arranged. "I'm in a good mood, and most importantly, I'm rewarding you!"

"Wow, thanks, Guild Leader!" I hadn't expected the little girl to be so good at winning people over. "Then I won't be polite!"

"Come, you all eat too!" Long Xin beckoned to the seven Eastern Guards.

"Then we won't refuse!" The leading Eastern Guard was quite straightforward, grabbing a seat. With delicious food before them, even surrounded by piles of skeleton corpses, it in no way diminished anyone's appetite. However, to finish the task as quickly as possible, everyone ate with whirlwind speed. In just ten minutes, they devoured the entire table full of the inn's signature dishes, one hundred steamed buns, and ten jars of Jade Carving Nectar. After resting for half an hour, they went back to work.

With the experience gained from the morning’s coordination, our monster-killing efficiency increased significantly again, and Long Xin along with the seven Eastern Guards still couldn't keep up with our killing pace. This made Long Qi, Long Zhan, and me smug for quite a while. It wasn't until dusk approached that we were forced to abandon the killing and collecting work.

After a careful count, the Skeleton Eyes we collected reached one hundred and twenty thousand. Adding the thirty thousand handed in this morning, it was just enough to complete the mission. This was something none of us had anticipated. And that didn't even count the nearly fifty meters of skeleton terrain left uncollected—probably enough for another twenty thousand, at least.

However, it was a pity that I still hadn't grasped the Offensive Blade Technique. But during the process of killing monsters, I distinctly felt a very strange state. When I was submerged by countless Skeleton Warlords, I felt no fear or panic at all; instead, there was an extreme surge of excitement, as if a pent-up energy was building inside me, desperate to be released, yet I couldn't vent this accumulated energy. I guessed this must be a precursor to mastering the Offensive Blade Technique.

"Are you sure you really felt that way?" Long Zhan was greatly surprised after listening to my description.

"Yes!" I affirmed with a nod.

"Then it must be true!" Long Zhan explained. "You've sensed the presence of Offensive Blade Qi! It's just that the intensity of this Qi isn't strong enough yet to allow it to be released outside the body!"

"It looks like if you hold out for one more day, you should be able to release your Offensive Blade Qi," Long Qi said enviously. "You're amazing, kid. You're mastering the Offensive Blade Technique so quickly! Remember, Long Zhan spent a whole month struggling here to grasp the Offensive Blade Technique!"

"Heh heh, how can I compare to him!" Long Zhan's face flushed red with shame.

"It's still uncertain whether I can master it," I admitted. Honestly, I wasn't very confident about the feeling in my body. Mastering the Offensive Blade Technique in three days would be too incredible! But I speculated it had something to do with the number of monsters killed. If we continued killing at this rate, mastering the Offensive Blade Technique tomorrow should be certain.

"Don't worry," Long Zhan assured me. "If you really felt the presence of Offensive Blade Qi today, with your strength, you can master the Offensive Blade Technique tomorrow. I guarantee it!"

"That sounds a bit exaggerated," I said, but Long Zhan's words did boost my confidence.